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Silvija twisted the dial to force the radio to broadcast to everyone. "All eastern positions. Full retreat to secondary lines. Everyone is hereby ordered to not engage the mutant. Avoid contact at all costs."
"Copy, falling back—"
"One of East bunker is gone, we're—"
"Jesus Christ, he just tore through Kozlov like—"
"MOVE." Silvija's shout cut through the overlapping panic, harsher than she intended. "Anyone who engages that mutant will be deemed as disobeying orders. Withdraw and regroup."
Beside her, Amy lowered her rifle with shaking hands. "M'lady..."
Silvija kept her eyes on the scope instead of Amy. If she looked, she knew she would see a flicker of doubt, the question about why Dante wasn't here, and why wasn't Ava deployed to fight the superhuman threat.
"M'lady, there is something I haven't been able to tell you."
Silvija's finger hovered over the radio, ready to issue another order. "Amy, not now."
"You know why I was so pissed at Dante?" Amy asked, ignoring Silvija and the chaos the mutant had brought. "Why I shot him?"
"Amy, we can talk—"
Amy slapped her hand over Silvija's mouth. The contact stunned her more than the words. No one silenced her like that.
"I love you."
Silvija's eyes went wide, and for a moment the world narrowed to the slight wetness in Amy's eyes and the way her throat trembled. Scenes she had never bothered to connect suddenly started making sense—Amy's lingering looks when she thought Silvija wasn't paying attention, the way Amy always stepped a little too close when danger appeared, and the look of jealousy when Silvija showed interest in someone.
It made even more sense remembering Amy came from a clan of all-female assassins.
"I've always loved you," Amy said, hand dropping away as her eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall. "You always talked about finding a worthy husband and conceiving the greatest heir. Carrying on your father's legacy. I could never… I could never bring myself to say it."
Silvija looked away. "Amy, I can't."
The admission was short and heartless. Before Dante, she might have experimented to understand this fierce devotion Amy had, even if she wasn't sexually drawn to women. But everything had changed since she was in a relationship and probably going to become a mother before next year.
"I know." Amy let out a hollow, bitter laughter. She threw her rifle aside, which clattered against the wall. She pulled out two beautiful curved swords from the sheaths on her back, each one with an ornate golden hilt. "That's why I'm leaving Wild Pack."
"You're lying?" Silvija couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why?"
Amy flashed a grin, but underneath the bravado was resignation of someone who had already decided they were not walking back. Silvija had seen this look too many times in this line.
"M'lady, remember the assassin who took down a feral mutant."
"Amy—" Silvija reached out, but Amy stepped away and vaulted through the window.
Silvija rushed to the opening and saw Amy hit the platform just below. Amy sprinted along the narrow ledge before leaping to the next platform, then the next. She descended the jagged maze of steel and concrete like it was a training course instead of a death run.
She dropped to the courtyard below and landed in a roll before sprinting toward the southern approach, where the mutant who had torn through soldiers like tissue paper.
The Hand operatives reacted on instinct the moment they saw movement. Gunfire erupted, muzzle flashes stuttering through smoke. Amy's arms moved in a blur as she intercepted the bullets aiming for her head with her sword. The rest of her body was wrapped in red plated armor. Lower caliber rounds smacked into her chest and shoulders and ricocheted away, leaving scuffs but no blood.
Silvija clenched her fist, holding back the urge to chase after Amy. She couldn't be selfish, not when everyone needed her commands.
She quickly tuned to Wild Pack channel.
"Piotr, take down that mutant," Silvija whispered. "Hades told you to stop holding back. He'll handle all the consequences."
There was a brief moment of silence before Piotr laughed. "Piotr Rasputin—Colossus—heading to engage."
Silvija aimed the rifle, only to stop when Ava's voice came through the radio.
"Piotr also has superpowers, huh? Didn't see that one coming." Ava chuckled. "Commander, shouldn't I support Piotr?"
Ava only had two protocols: protect Silvija or kill whatever threatened Silvija.
"I need you on the elevator," Silvija said firmly. "Defend it with your life."
Ava didn't speak again, then Sivlija's phone rang in her pocket. It was Ava trying to make a private conversation, which wasn't possible in their channel.
"Sis, what are you hiding from me?" Ava asked. The formality from seconds ago was gone, replaced by the voice of younger sister Ava. "What did he make you do?"
"It's not his fault, Ava darling. It's mine."
"Sis, say it to me clearly. You know I can't read minds."
For five years, Ava had been more than a subordinate. Ava had been her family. Someone Silvija had fed, trained, scolded, and protected. The little girl who had clung to her coat in winters now demanded honesty like she was owed it. And she was.
She could lie to anyone, but lying to Ava felt like betraying her only piece of conscience in this business. Still, she had no choice.
"I'll explain everything later," Silvija muttered. "Heads-up. You might have to stop the symbiotes trying to leave the underground facility. Hold them off as much as possible."
"What? From down there?" Ava was in disbelief. "Did Norman make them?"
"Yeah. I'll talk to you later."
"Sis, explain—"
Silvija cut the call and shot a bullet at the mutant's ribs, stopping him for a few seconds. He glared at her with burning hatred, like he wanted to chew her alive.
Silvija felt cold fear, but she held his gaze and refused to flinch.
A sharp thwip cut through the noise, followed by a shadow dropping into view. Ghost Spider latched onto the window Amy had just thrown herself through, landing in a low crouch.
"You're the leader?"
Silvija blinked in surprise. "Ghost Spider? Are you here to help?"
"I've been helping, lady," Ghost Spider groaned and pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "I incapacitated a dozen guys trying solo infiltration. Matching ninja outfits, swords, and doing backflips everywhere. Pretty sure they were the real thing."
Silvija's mind processed the information instantly. A dozen Hand operatives taken out before the main assault even hit their lines. That meant Ghost Spider hadn't come here to investigate the gunshots—she had been here for a while, scouting, and striking the solo hand operatives.
"How did you know we would be attacked?"
"One of your men. Dante. He called me." Ghost Spider landed lightly inside and turned toward the southern approach, where the mutant was busy tearing another bunker open like a tin can. "Tell everyone to stop wasting ammo on that guy. I'll take him."
"Can you defeat him?"
"Defeat him?" Ghost Spider's eye lenses snapped wide in exaggerated disbelief. "Lady, did you not see him shrug off a high-caliber sniper round like a mosquito bite? He's got regeneration too. I can only keep him busy."
"You won't be alone. Two more fighters are heading to engage. One of them is special like you."
"Great. My friendly advice, though. Keep everyone else as far as possible." Ghost Spider shrugged. "But hey, you do you, Miss Commander."
Silvija yanked a spare tactical radio from her rig and tossed it. Ghost Spider snatched it out of the air without even glancing as if it was just an instinct.
"Keep it," Silvija said. "I'll feed you updates on the mutant and anything else you need."
"Or use me as a free superpowered soldier," Ghost Spider muttered, but still clipping the radio to her shoulder. "I see where Dante learned his tactics from."
A small, quick grin tugged at Silvija's mouth despite her tension. "Did Dante not tell you he is my man? Any order from me should count as his, too."
Ghost Spider's lenses widened again. "Felicia and you? That man really knows how to pick his women."
"We can discuss his harem later." Silvija's smile vanished as she jerked her chin toward the south. "Go help with the mutant."
"So he is a mutant."
Ghost Spider gave a slow nod and vaulted back through the window. A heartbeat later, her webline snapped out and latched onto a distant structure.
Silvija could only look in envy as Ghost Spider swung through the air. "How did Lover turn her into his errand girl?"
Ghost Spider seemed to hold a grudge against Dante, but still came here to help.
'What's even their relationship?'
She thought, and this time, her enhanced mind didn't help. It only worked with warfare, not her personal life.
She had just killed a man trying to aim at Ghost Spider when the distinct Japanese-accented English came through the radio again.
"The Weapon cannot be stopped," the Hand's leader spoke again. "He is immortal, and he will continue to kill your men."
"Immortal?" Silvija scoffed. "Everyone is mortal before the gaze of Death. She decides who lives or dies."
"Hahahaha." The voice found her thought absurd. "We, the Hand, have been defying death for thousands of years."
"Then you just signed your own warrant," Silvija said. Thinking of Dante steadied her in a way nothing else did. "Because my lover controls life and death."
"Arrogant." The voice was filled with scorn. "Let the Weapon tear through your men, then."
She shifted her scope to the western watchtower. It looked empty at a glance, but the thermal overlay showed faint, distorted signatures. The Hand had hidden their elites under metal-layered suits designed to fool the heat sensors.
Holding her heartbeat, she steadied her hands and took a shot. Someone fell down the watchtower, dead.
"Was that you, Mr. Arrogant?"
"Your arrogance will end you," the Hand's Leader sounded furious. Watching an operative die through his own eyes had gotten under his skin. "Mark the words of Nobu. Before dawn, Silver Sable International shall cease to exist."
"Hear my ultimatum too, bitch. Before next month, the Hand will be gone."
If they want war, she will give them one. She wouldn't be afraid of them without Dante. But with Dante, she would chew through them.
'Don't take too long, Lover.'
Or she won't be able to raise her head with dignity in front of her men.
***
Ghost-Spider—Gwen—swung straight toward the part of the battlefield every instinct screamed at her to avoid. Below her, bodies lay in broken heaps, some ripped clean in half, others so mangled she had to force her eyes forward before her stomach revolted.
"The mutant you're dealing with is dubbed 'the Weapon' by the Hand." Silver Sable's stern, slightly European-accented voice came from the comm. "And their leader, Nobu, just threatened to wipe everyone in this facility before dawn."
Gwen's heart shook at the thought of so many dead people. The nauseating feeling only grew stronger when she remembered the many, many dead bodies she had seen today. The only reason she had contributed so little to the fight. She was too stunned to take action when she saw Silver Sable's mercs mowing through wave after wave of Hand operatives.
She might have powers, but nothing in her masked-career had prepared her for slaughter on this scale. This wasn't some alley brawl with a mugger. This was a war between two factions, where death was just a stat on the paper.
"I won't let that happen," Gwen whispered, more to herself than to Sable. "That's what superheroes do, right? We save the day when nobody else can."
Right now, she wasn't sure she believed it. One person couldn't stop a war. Maybe Dante at full power could have, but she wasn't a cold-blooded mercenary. She was just a girl before this week, keeping her superpowers hidden.
"You have my gratitude, Ghost Spider."
"Just doing my job as the only active vigilante."
She closed in on the southern approach and finally saw him. The mutant—the Weapon—held a soldier in the air by the claws stabbed in his chest. After everything she had seen tonight, she didn't even flinch at the sight.
Her gaze snapped to a figure lurking close by. It was a woman in red armor, twin curved swords in hand, waiting for the tiniest opening to strike down the Weapon.
'She should be the first.'
There was one other ally Silvija had mentioned. She wasn't sure if they would be of any help or just burdens.
'Whatever. Stick to the plan, Stacy.'
Gwen swung lower, snapped a new webline, and landed in a light hop just shy of the Weapon's reach. "Mr. Claws, how you doing?"
The Weapon growled like an animal.
"I can teach you English if you're interested," she went on. "Not a great teacher, but I'm willing to try."
He lunged instead, claws trying to slash her face with terrifying speed.
Her lenses drooped into an unimpressed expression. "I invite a guy out, and he tries to slash my face. One hell of a story to tell MJ."
The claws missed her by inches as she backflipped. Every swipe carved the air where she had just been. The claws were made of some unknown metal, so sharp they would tear through her in an instant—her Spider-Sense never lied about danger level.
She pushed off a cracked wall, twisted mid-air, and snapped her heel into his jaw on the way past. A tremor went through her leg. She felt like she had kicked a wall instead of a human. She now knew why the sniper bullet had flattened against his forehead. This man's entire skeleton was coated in metal even tougher than Tungsten.
"Pretty sure you're legally not allowed to still count as a human, big guy."
The Weapon barely flinched at her attack, but momentum was hers. She fired a webline and slammed both feet into his chest in a double kick. This time, the hit staggered him enough to knock him back and down.
Before he could recover, she unloaded her web shooters. Thick white strands layered over his limbs, his torso, and even his face. She dumped an entire cartridge in hopes to tie down the walking massacre.
By the time she stopped, the Weapon was cocooned in a thick, sticky mass, pinned to the ground like a giant bug.
"RAGGHHH!" The immortal roared beneath the web, glaring at her, but unable to move. The web held him down.
"Plan A worked," she laughed, breathless and a little hysterical. "It never does, but it worked today—"
One claw suddenly punched through the cocoon.
Gwen's shoulders slumped. "I should never trust Plan A."
Her spider-sense flared. She zipped sideways without thinking. The ground she had been standing on erupted a heartbeat later under a volley of gunfire.
"The only day I'm more popular with guys than MJ," she muttered, ducking behind cover as more shots chased her. "Mr. Claws, please don't destroy my web. I'll treat you to Smokie's hot wings."
The Weapon cared naught for her cheap offer and ripped through her webs. Before he could fully rise, the red-armored woman rushed from her position.
She closed the distance in a few bounding steps and drove both of her blades straight into the Weapon's throat. The steel slipped through flesh like it was nothing, and blood sprayed.
Even Gwen, who had seen him shrug off bullets, felt a jolt of certainty at the Weapon's fate. She wasn't joyous, only feeling a guilty twist in her chest. She had been the one tangling him up, which meant she was the biggest contributor in his death.
Then her Spider-Sense screamed again.
She fired a web at the red-armored assassin, yanked hard, and swung them both away just as the Weapon's claws shredded up through where Amy's right leg had been a second ago. Bullets tore into the spot they had vacated, the Hand gunmen switching aim the moment they saw a target.
"Too many idiots with guns," Gwen groaned. Every instinct urged her to leap at the shooters and web them to walls, but that would mean leaving the Weapon unwatched.
The assassin didn't fight Gwen's grip and let herself be carried behind a friendly bunker.
"Miss Amy!" One of the mercenaries yelled through the firing port. "Are you alright?"
Amy waved her hand. "I'm fine."
Gwen pushed Amy toward the bunker door. "Stay here. I'll take care of him."
Amy ignored the command like she hadn't heard it at all and edged around the corner. Her eyes widened. "He still didn't die?! How does he make Dante look weak in comparison?"
"Dante is stronger than Mr. Claws," Gwen answered, trusting her Spider-Sense. "Let's try not to kill him. We should hand him over—"
"Fuck off with your law bullshit." Amy spat out with a vicious look. "He made Silvija sad. He will die."
Gwen stared at her. Of all the reasons to kill Mr. Claws on this battlefield, she never expected it to be lesbian love.
Without another word, Amy bolted out from cover and charged the immortal again with no regard for the bullets or claws waiting for her.
Gwen snapped a webline at Amy's back and yanked her back to the bunk.
"Stop stopping me!" Amy screamed, thrashing against the pull.
"Stop trying to kill yourself!" Gwen shot back. "That—"
The ground rumbled.
A motorcycle roared onto the scene from the flank, engine screaming as it barreled toward the Weapon. On its back was a giant of a man, massive shoulders hunched over the handlebars. Gunfire redirected instantly, cutting away from Gwen and Amy toward the new target.
Before the bullets hit, the rider's skin flashed and hardened into metal. In an instant, his entire body turned into living steel. He kicked off the bike and landed with a thunderous impact that cracked the concrete.
The riderless vehicle slammed into the Weapon's midsection. Mr. Claws roared and ripped it apart with his claws.
"Piotr?" Amy sounded surprised. "He's a mutant too?"
Gwen felt a bit happy at the revelation. An ally who might be able to stop the massacre machine Mr. Claws.
The metal-skinned man—Piotr—strode forward in resounding steps. He squared his shoulders, ready to engage. Then he stopped dead, and his eyes widened.
"Comrade Logan?!"
Gwen wanted to groan. Of course, these two powerful men had a backstory with each other. Nothing was allowed to be simple on this night.
A/N: No, there won't be any yuri in the story, and Amy won't be a love interest either.
***
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